Elijah and Elisha: Mentoring

from my message from II Kings 2:1-4, on September 8, 2013

I think I look pretty good in this suit.  I think we followers of Christ all look our best in hand-me-down clothes.  More about this at the end of the sermon today.

This is the 3rd in my series on Life Coach.  We are looking at examples from the Bible on how to live well.  Today it is Elijah and Elisha, a classic example of mentoring, as the mantle of leadership is passed from one to the other.  Modern day examples are of a coach to a player, a master to a student, a teacher to a pupil, one older and wiser to one not so much.

I thought it would be good to hear from an actual coach about her experince of mentoring as well as how she has been mentored.  Please pay attention to the video.  (Jennifer White who coached at the college level for 19 years)

In just a moment I want you to visit in groups of 2 or 3 about someone who has been a mentor to you.  We get the word "mentor" from the Greek play, the "Odyssey."  Mentor was a character who offered advice and wisdom to others.  Take 3 minutes now to share with a person near you one who has counseled you or taught you or modeled for you in business, education, life, and especially the Christian faith.

(I sing the Doxology to bring this to a close)  We are thankful for our mentors.

Back to the biblical story.  I need to teach you a bit of Hebrew.  When you see the word "El" in a name, it means God.  The "i" means "my."  So Eli means "My God."  Elijah means "My God is the Yahweh," or "My God is the LORD."  Elisha means "My God is salvation."  So My God is the LORD mentors My God is salvation.

Notice the course in mentoring.  Elijah tells Elisha to stay put.  Elisha refuses.  "I will go where you go."  This happens 3 times.  Like last week's story, 3 times make sure we get it.  If you plot their journey on a map, you will find that they wander around in the Jordan River valley.  It is not a straight line.  Therefore, it is not about a route, but a relationship.  It is not a where, but a who.  Then there are the people on the sidelines who taunt.  The companies of prophets tell Elisha to give up, but he doesn't.  I know that this never happens us today as we try to follow Jesus.  People don't us that we're stupid, or going the wrong way.  Oh....they do.

Then comes this wonderful scene where Elijah asks a probing question, "What may I do for you?"  It is almost like finding a genie in a bottle. What would you ask for?  Money, fame, power?  Notice what Elisha asks for, "I want to inherit a double portion of your spirit."

You may think he is asking for twice the spirit that Elijah has, but it means something else.  In the Bible times, the older son got 2/3 of the estate and the younger son got but 1/3.  I know it doesn't seem fair, but that's the way it was.  By asking for a double portion, Elisha is asking to be Elijah's eldest son.  He is saying, "I want you to be my spiritual father.  I want to carry on your work." And when the time comes for Elijah to be carried up into heaven in a whirlwind, Elisha shouts, "Father, father."

Then Elisha takes up Elijah's mantle.  I looked it up.  A mantle was like an overcoat, or an outer covering.  One size fit all.  If you were shorter or smaller, you tucked it up with a rope belt or pinned it together with a brooch.  At night you could wrap it around you in your sleep.  Elisha takes up Elijah's mantle and immediately begins to do the things that Elijah did.  He strikes the water, and it parts.  The mantle of leadership has been passed.

You may be saying, "What does this have to do with us today?"  We United Methodists have a big meeting every year cleverly called annual conference.  Some 1200 clergy and lay delegates from some 350 churches in south Texas gather to do our church business and worship together.  In one of those worship settings, this passage of scripture is read.  Then one of the retiring pastors takes his or her stole and places it on one of those about to be ordained.  The one to be ordained says, "Let me inherit a double portion of your spirit."

It is good to wear hand-me-down clothes.  Here is my stole that was placed on me in June of 1980 as I was ordained an elder in the United Methodist Church at Travis Park UMC in San Antonio. 

Now this suit that I wear.  I look good in it, don't I?  You know I wrote a novel while on my renewal leave.  It is called "The Last Kiss," about a hospice chaplain that carries a fatal disease.... I can't give away too much.  Please come on Sunday, September 22, for our "thank you lunch" when I will read you a chapter or two.  Anyhow, I gather with 4 other pastors every other Monday for breakfast, so that we can hold each other accountable and pray for one another.  Two weeks ago when we met, I read them a chapter.  One of my pastor friends, said, "I'm working on a novel too.  It is called, 'Dead Preachers' Clothes.'"  What does that mean.  He said, "So many times in my ministry, a widow of a pastor has come to me, and said, "Jim, you were about his size.  He has so many suits.  Would you like one?'"  He now has a closet full of dead preachers' clothes.

This suit that I am wearing came for Ben Feemster, a UM pastor who served in the Dallas and Ft. Worth area.  He was a mentor to me.  He passed the mantle of leadership on to me.  I think I look good in his suit.  In my clothing are also Claus Rohlfs and Mal Hierholzer and many others.

Whose clothes are you wearing?  We have already given thanks for our mentors.  Now the question is to whom will you give your clothes?  Whom are your mentoring.  We need lots of teachers, leaders, helpers right now in our children's Sunday School classes and youth classes and Bible Studies.  Please let me know if you are being called to this ministry.

The good news is that we look our best when we were hand-me-down clothes.  The good news is that we are at our best when we pass them on.  Amen.